• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.862-872
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• 2021

Recent studies on synthesis of metallic nanomaterials such as silver (Ag), gold (Au), platinum (Pt), cerium (Ce), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) nanoparticles (NPs) using plants and microbes are attracted researchers for their wide range of applications in the field of biomedical sciences. The plant contains abundant of bioactive contents such as flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, steroids tannins and nutritionals components. Similarly, microbes produce bioactive metabolites, proteins and secretes valuable chemicals such as color pigments, antibiotics, and acids. Recently reported, biogenic synthesis of NPs in non-hazardous way and are promising candidates for biomedical applications such as antibacterial, antifungal, anti-cell proliferative and anti-plasmodia activity. All those activities are dose dependent, along with their shape and size also matters on potential of NPs. Microbes and plants are great source of metabolites, those useful in biomedical field, such metabolites or chemicals involved in synthesis of NPs in an ecofriendly way. NPs synthesized using microbes or plant materials are reveals more non-toxic, facile, and cost-effective compare to chemically synthesized NPs. In present review we are focusing on NPs synthesis using biological agents such as microbes (bacteria, fungi and algae) and plant, characterization using different techniques and their antibacterial applications on pathogenic Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2018.04a
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• pp.3-3
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• 2018

For centuries, Panax ginseng Meyer (Korean ginseng) has been widely used as a medicinal herb in Korea, China, and Japan. Ginsenosides are a class of triterpene saponins and recognized as the bioactive components in Korean ginseng. Ginsenosides, which can be classified broadly as protopanaxadiols (PPD), protopanaxatriols (PPT), and oleanolic acids, have been shown to flaunt a vast array of pharmacological activities such as immune-modulatory, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-diabetic, and antioxidant effects. In recent years, a number of ginseng and ginsenoside researches have increasingly gained wide attention owing to its unique pharmacological properties. Although good efficacies of ginsenosides have been reported, lack of target specific delivery into tumor sites, low solubility, and low bioavailability due to modifications in gastro-intestinal environments limit their biomedical application in clinical trials. As a result to this major challenge, nanotechnology and drug delivery techniques play a significant role to solve this problematic issue. Thus, we reported the preparation of poly-ethylene glycol (PEG) and glycol chitosan (GC) functionalized to ginsenoside (Compound K and PPD) conjugates via hydrolysable ester bonds with improved aqueous solubility and pH-dependent drug release. In vitro cytotoxicity assays revealed that PEG-CK, and PPD-CK conjugates exhibited lower cytotoxicity compared to bare CK and PPD in HT29 cells. However, GC-CK conjugates exhibited higher and similar cytotoxicity in HT29 and HepG2 cells. Furthermore, GC-CK-treated RAW264.7 cells did not exhibit significant cell death at higher concentration of treatment which supports the biocompatibility of the polymer conjugates. They also inhibited nitric oxide production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW64.7 cells. In addition to polymer-ginsenoside conjugates, silver (AgNps) and gold nanoparticles (AuNps) have been successfully synthesized by green chemistry using different m. The biosynthesized nanoparticles demonstrated antimicrobial efficacy, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant activity, biofilm inhibition, and anticoagulant effect. Special interest on the effective delivery methods of ginsenoside to treatment sites is the focus of metal nanoparticle research.In short, nano-sizing of ginsenoside results in an increased water solubility and bioavailability. The use of nano-sized ginsenoside and P. ginseng mediated metallic nanoparticles is expected to be effective on medical platform against various diseases in the future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.393-393
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• 2012

Optically active nanostructures such as subwavelength moth-eye antireflective structures or surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) active structures have been demonstrated to provide the effective suppression of unwanted reflections as in subwavelength structure (SWS) or effective enhancement of selective signals as in SERS. While various nanopatterning techniques such as photolithography, electron-beam lithography, wafer level nanoimprinting lithography, and interference lithography can be employed to fabricate these nanostructures, roll-to-roll (R2R) nanoimprinting is gaining interests due to its low cost, continuous, and scalable process. R2R nanoimprinting requires a master to produce a stamp that can be wrapped around a quartz roller for repeated nanoimprinting process. Among many possibilities, two different types of mask can be employed to fabricate optically active nanostructures. One is self-assembled Au nanoparticles on Si substrate by depositing Au film with sputtering followed by annealing process. The other is monolayer silica particles dissolved in ethanol spread on the wafer by spin-coating method. The process is optimized by considering the density of Au and silica nano particles, depth and shape of the patterns. The depth of the pattern can be controlled with dry etch process using reactive ion etching (RIE) with the mixture of SF6 and CHF3. The resultant nanostructures are characterized for their reflectance using UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer (Agilent technology, Cary 5000) and for surface morphology using scanning electron microscope (SEM, JEOL JSM-7100F). Once optimized, these optically active nanostructures can be used to replicate with roll-to-roll process or soft lithography for various applications including displays, solar cells, and biosensors.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.81-90
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• 2011

Different weight percentages of Ag, Pt, and Au doped nano $TiO_2$ were synthesized using the acetic acid hydrolyzed sol-gel method. The crystallite phase, surface morphology combined with elemental composition and light absorption properties of the doped nano $TiO_2$ were comprehensively examined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), $N_2$ sorption analysis, transmission electron microscopic (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray, and DRS UV-vis analysis. The doping of noble metals stabilized the anatase phase, without conversion to rutile phase. The formation of gold nano particles in Au doped nano $TiO_2$ was confirmed from the XRD patterns for gold. The specific surface area was found to be in the range 50 to 85 $m^2$/g. TEM images confirmed the formation a hexagonal plate like morphology of nano $TiO_2$. The photocatalytic activity of doped nano $TiO_2$ was evaluated using 4-chlorophenol as the model pollutant. Au doped (0.5 wt %) nano $TiO_2$ was found to exhibit higher photocatalytic activity than the other noble metal doped nano $TiO_2$, pure nano $TiO_2$ and commercial $TiO_2$ (Degussa P-25). This enhanced photocatalytic activity was due to the cathodic influence of gold in suppressing the electron-hole recombination during the reaction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.76-76
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• 2008

The resonance properties due to the surface plasmon(SP) excitation of metal nanoparticles make the nanocomposite films promising for various applications such as optical switching devices. In spite of the well-known ultra-sensitive operation of optical switches based on a guided wave, the application of nanocomposite film(NC) has inherent limitation originating from the excessive optical loss related with the surface plasmon resonance(SPR). In this study, we addressed this problem and present the experimental and theoretical analysis on the pump-probe optical switching in prism-coupled Au(1 vol.%):$SiO_2$ nanocomposite waveguide film. The guided mode was successfully generated using a near infrared probe beam of 1550 nm and modulated with an external pump beam of 532 nm close to the SPR wavelength. We extend our approach to ultra-fast operation using a pulsed laser with 5 ns pulse width. To improve the switching speed through the reduction in thermal loading effect accompanied by the resonant absorption of pump beam light, we adopted a metallic film as a coupling layer instead of low-index dielectric layer between the high-index SF10 prism and NC slab waveguide. We observed great enhancement in switching speed for the case of using metallic coupling layer, and founded a distinct difference in origin of optical nonlinearities induced during switching operation using cw and ns laser.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.222-227
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• 2010

This study added Au colloid in martial of conventional contact lens in various concentrations and copolymerized by heating at $70^{\circ}C$ for 40 minutes, $80^{\circ}C$ for 40 minutes, and finally, $100^{\circ}C$ for 40 minutes. Using the polymer produced through the copolymerization process, we have produced a contact lens and measured the physical characteristics which showed oxygen transmissibility of $9{\sim}12{\times}10^{-9}$ cm/s mL $O_2$/mL ${\times}$ mmHg, water content of 27.84% ~ 32.17%, refractive index of 1.432 ~ 1.443, visible transmittance of 83.2% ~ 89.5% and tensile strength of 0.141 kgf ~ 0.152 kgf. The polymer satisfied the physical properties required to produce contact lenses. Also, we judged that the polymer is suitable to be applied as a functional material for ophthalmological purposes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.130-131
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• 2013

Nanostructured oxides are widely used in heterogeneous catalysis where their catalytic properties are closely associated with the size and morphology at nanometer level. The effect of particle size has been well decumented in the past two decades, but the shape of the nanoparticles has rarely been concerned. Here we illustrate that the redox and acidic-basic properties of oxides are largely dependent on their shapes by taking $Co_3O_4$, $Fe_2O_3$, $CeO_2$ and $La_2O_3$ nanorods as typical examples. The catalytic activities of these rod-shaped oxides are mainly governed by the nature of the exposed crystal planes. For instance, the predominant presence of {110} planes which are rich in active $Co^{3+}$ on $Co_3O_4$ nanorods led to a much higher activity for CO oxidation than the nanoparticles that mainly exposed the {111} planes. The simultaneous exposure of iron and oxygen ions on the surface of $Fe_2O_3$ nanorods have significantly enhanced the adsorption and activation of NO and thereby promoted the efficiency of DeNOx process. Moreover, the exposed surface planes of these rod-shaped oxides mediated the reaction performance of the integrated metal-oxide catalysts. Au/$CeO_2$ catalysts exhibited outstanding stability under water-gas shift conditions owing to the strong bonding of gold particle on the $CeO_2$ nanorods where the formed gold-ceria interface was resistant towards sintering. Cu nanoparticles dispersed on $La_2O_3$ nanorods efficiently catalyzed transfer dehydrogenation of primary aliphatic alcohols based on the uniue role of the exposed {110} planes on the support. Morphology control at nanometer level allows preferential exposure of the catalytically active sites, providing a new stragegy for the design of highly efficient nanostructured catalysts.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.126-126
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• 2014

Label-free biomolecular assay based localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of noble metal nanoparticles enables simple and rapid detection with the use of simple equipment. Nanosized metal nanoparticles exhibit a strong absorption band when the incident light frequency is resonant with the collective oscillation of the electrons, which is known as the LSPR. Here we demonstrate localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) substrates such as plasmonic Au nanodisks fabricated by a nanoimprinting process and gold nanorod-immobilized surfaces and their applications to highly sensitive and/or label-free biosensing. To increase detection sensitivity various bioreceptors weree designed. A single chain variable fragment (scFv) was used as a receptor to bind C-reactive protein (CRP). The results of this effort showed that CRP in human serum could be quantitatively detected lower than 1 ng/ml. Aptamers, which were immobilized on gold nanorods, were used to detect mycotoxins. The specific binding of ochratoxin A (OTA) to the aptamer was monitored by the longitudinal wavelength shift of LSPR peak in the UV-Vis spectra resulting from the changes of local refractive index near the GNR surface induced by accumulation of OTA and G-quadruplex structure formation of the aptamer. According to our results, OTA could be quantitatively detected lower than 1 nM level. Additionally, aptamer-functionalized GNR substrate was quite robust and can be regenerated many times by rinsing at 70 OC to remove bound target. During seven times of washing steps, the developed OTA sensing system could be reusable. Moreover, the proposed biosensor exhibited selectivity over other mycotoxins with an excellent recovery for detection in grinded corn samples, suggesting that the proposed LSPR based aptasensor plays an important role in label-free detection of mycotoxins.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.425-428
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• 2012

This paper presents the fabrication and characterization of graphene based hydrogen sensors. Graphene was synthesized by annealing process of Ni/3C-SiC thin films. Graphene was transferred onto oxidized Si substrates for fabrication of chemiresistive type hydrogen sensors. Au electrode on the graphene shows ohmic contact and the resistance is changed with hydrogen concentration. Nanoparticle catalysts of Pd and Pt were decorated. Response factor and response (recovery) time of hydrogen sensors based on the graphene are improved with catalysts. The response factors of pure graphene, Pt and Pd doped graphenes are 0.28, 0.6 and 1.26, respectively, at 50 ppm hydrogen concentration.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.351-356
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• 2009

We present a simple semiconductor process to fabricate nanogap arrays for application in molecular electronics and nano-bio electronics using a combination of freestanding silicon nanowires and angle evaporation. The gap distance is modulated using the height of the silicon dioxide, the width of the Si nanowires, and the evaporation angle. In addition, we fabricate and apply the nanogap arrays in single-electron transistors using DNA-linked Au nanoparticles for the detection of DNA hybridization.